A woman narrowly escaped a fire that engulfed a 21-storey building in Berlin, Germany, by jumping out of a window into a rescue basket. The fire broke out at around 6.27am local time on the balcony of the 11th floor of a block of flats on Straße der Pariser Kommune in Friedrichshain.
Dramatic rescue captured on video
Footage captured a resident dangling off the window of the 11th floor, about 35 metres off the ground, as flames roared in the next window over. She was still hanging off the edge when firefighters arrived, the service told the German national broadcaster rbb24.
As the crew's aerial lift only reached the ninth floor, she was forced to let go and fall into a rescue basket just 1.5 metres wide. Bystanders applauded when the woman was rescued.
Injuries and evacuation
At least 13 people were injured in the inferno, mostly from smoke inhalation, while five were taken to the hospital after the team evacuated the 113 residents. The cause of the fire is unclear, with firefighters finding the inside of the 11th floor had been badly damaged by smoke.
Footage shared by the Berliner Morgenpost showed the outside of the 11th-floor flat as well as the five above charred black by the blaze. Straße der Pariser Kommune was closed between An der Ostbahn and Rüdersdorfer Straße.
Second fire in Reinickendorf
A fire also broke out in a 10-storey block of flats in the Märkisches Viertel district of Reinickendorf at the same time. The fire service said, 'The situation was similar, but not as dramatic,' adding the blaze started on the fifth floor and reached the sixth.
One person was taken to hospital. Six of the 96 flats in the high-rise are now uninhabitable.
